Apple wants to offer users the best file sharing experience

Sep 25, 2014 13:35 GMT  ·  By

In about a month from now, Apple will be deploying OS X Yosemite to the masses. They’re still working out the kinks to get a rock solid OS into the hands of millions of customers worldwide, and that includes the AirDrop file-sharing feature that hasn’t always been reliable.

Select Mac users are beginning to receive invitations from the mother-ship to equip their Macs with the latest build of Yosemite (currently still in beta) and start swapping files between Macs. They must then report their findings on a specially set up forum.

Apple's invite notice

“AppleSeed and the AirDrop engineering team would like you to join us for an AirDrop Test Fest. What’s a test fest? At Apple we often hold test fests when we want to focus our efforts on a new feature or enhanced function of OS X,” says the Mac maker.

According to the email, Apple wants to extend the testing to seed participants, “...to help us test the new AirDrop in OS X Yosemite.”

“To facilitate this we have set up a special discussion topic where everyone participating can contribute their observations and results. There is a special AirDrop survey that will be available in Feedback Assistant. It will guide you through some of things we would like you to try. We will also be providing you with information for writing up AirDrop bug reports,” the Mac maker explains.

The company then proceeds to break down the details, including some technicalities.

Users need not one, but two Macs

According to the notice, testers will require two separate Macs, either both from a new generation (2012 or newer), or both from an older generation, in order to test both the new AirDrop and the legacy AirDrop compatibility.

“2012 Mac or later for new AirDrop. Any Mac for Legacy AirDrop (old Mac to Mac only),” reads the documentation.

“The Macs will need to be running the latest seeded build of OS X Yosemite. If you also want to test with your iPhone or iPad you will need device with a Lightning connector running iOS 7 or iOS 8,” the company adds.

Testers are told to freely test AirDrop from 12:00 PM PDT Wednesday, Sept. 24, until Sunday, Sept. 28, while Apple stresses that it’s important to join the discussion in this timeframe.

Part of something big

To incentivize the initiative, Apple relays to the tester community that “This is an exclusive opportunity for you to help make AirDrop rock solid when we release it for all our customers this fall.”

OS X 10.10 will likely be offered as a free download to all Mac users with compatible computers in about a month from now.